Thursday, 25 September 2014

Media Quotes of the Week: From Trinity Mirror confirms phone hacking to is Twitter a cry for help?

Trinity Mirror in a statement, reported by BBC News: "The company today confirms that its subsidiary MGN Ltd has admitted liability to four individuals who had sued MGN for alleged interception of their voicemails many years ago. MGN has apologised to those individuals and agreed to pay compensation. The amount of that compensation will be assessed by the court if it cannot be agreed. The company can also confirm that six other voicemail interception claims have already been settled for agreed sums."

Ed Miliband in his speech at the Labour Party Conference: "I care about using the power of government to stand up against powerful forces when we need to do so. It came home to me the other day, when I met Rosie, a doctor from Devon, and she said to me: 'what we need is someone who will stand up for working people, for everyday people, because you will have the power and we won’t.' That’s why I stood up to Rupert Murdoch over phone hacking. That’s why I stood up to the banks over bonuses. That’s why I stood up to the payday lenders over their exploitation of the poorest people in our country. That’s why I stood up to the energy companies over their profits and prices and, yes, it’s why I stood up to the Daily Mail when they said my dad hated Britain because I know my dad loved Britain."

Deborah Orr in the Guardian: "The Westminster bubble isolates the media as well as politicians. The decline in the regional media over recent decades has contributed hugely to the democratic deficit that the UK now toils under. But devolved politics would mean a devolved media too, and that would be an extremely good thing, in and of itself."

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, on kidnapped journalist John Cantlie: "It is outrageous that a journalist who went to Syria to do his job, reporting on an unfolding crisis and its devastating impact on its citizens, was kidnapped and has been held now for two years. This video, in which John has been forced to deliver a message on behalf of ISIS knowing that his life is on the line is yet another disgraceful and cowardly attempt to target and intimidate reporters from carrying out their work. Its intention is clear, to spread fear and to send a message that journalists – along with other workers –are fair game and mere political pawns to be exploited as their captors see fit."

Hannah Storm, director of the International News Safety Institute, in the Guardian: "This latest video showing John is an appalling attempt by Islamic militants to intimidate journalists like him who take extreme risks, in order to shine light into the darkest recesses of society and document the lives of those whose stories need to be told. As long as his captors are allowed to use him as a pawn in their propaganda, they will continue to send a message that journalists can be manipulated as they see fit. It’s no longer enough, it seems, for the detractors of journalists to be killing the messenger. Now the messenger has become the channel for someone else’s despicable message."

Charles Spencer on how he got his job as theatre critic of the Telegraph: "The first-string theatre critic was the waspishly entertaining Charles Osborne, and he went to review Alan Bennett’s stage adaptation of The Wind in the Willows and didn’t care for it. Unfortunately for him, and miraculously for me, the Telegraph’s then editor, Max Hastings, had loved The Wind in the Willows since childhood and decided that Osborne had to go. Gentle reader, I got my job because Max Hastings loved Ratty, and Moley, Badger and Mr Toad, and Charles Osborne thought they were insufferably twee."

fleetstreetfox ‏@fleetstreetfox on Twitter: "Oh and some div from PR Week thinks I'm a parody account. That's PRs for you, always failing to get the point of what journalists do..."

MailOnline quotes spokesman after Northern Echo Parly correspondent Rob Merrick is injured in a clash with shadow chancellor Ed Balls during a charity football match: "Rob felt a boom and then suddenly he was bust."

Ruby Wax in theObserverabout Twitter: "At first, I convinced myself that my Twitter account was for PR and highlighting important mental health issues, scientific breakthroughs and anti-discrimination initiatives. Now I’m just talking about shopping and watering my tree. It’s humiliating. A cry for help."

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery